THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very
much. Gracia por tu bienvenida. Thank you,
all. Es un gran honor para me de esta con Ustedes -- it's an
honor to be here with you all. Thank you very much for your
hospitality. Sientase. (Laughter.) I appreciate
so very much the hospitality. It's nice to come over from
your neighboring state to New Mexico. I've always held New
Mexico in high regard. It's such a beautiful land, full of
decent and caring people. Well-represented, I might add, in
the United States Senate by my close friend, Pete
Domenici. (Applause.)

I know this is not a political event, but
I can't believe anybody would dare challenge Pete -- he's doing such a
good job on behalf of the people of New Mexico. (Applause.)

I appreciate Jeff Bingaman, the other
Senator from the state of New
Mexico. (Applause.) I appreciate his service to
the state. I look forward to working with Jeff, to have a
coherent energy policy for the United States of America. I
appreciate Heather Wilson. She's a breath of fresh air in
the United States Congress. (Applause.)

I want to thank my friend, Joe Skeen, for
coming up from southeast New Mexico. I appreciate el Alcalde
de Albuquerque, the Mayor, for being here, as well. But most
of all, I want to thank the good folks of the Hispano
Chamber. I want to thank Loretta and Phil Castillo for their
hospitality. And I want to thank them for their vision. I
want to thank them for understanding the importance of community, and
of the importance of small business in our society.

Archbishop, thank you very much for being
here, as well.

You know, the role of government is not to
try to create wealth. The role of government is to create an
environment in which people can realize the American
Dream. And part of the American Dream is to be able to own your
own business, to be able to say, I want to start my business, I want to
nurture my business, I want to grow my business. It's the
wonderful thing about America that if you've got an idea, it doesn't
matter who you are or where you're from, that that experience ought to
be available to everybody.

And so I think we're doing some things in
Washington, D.C. to make it easier for people to own their own small
business. And by the way, it's incredibly
important. As my friend, Hector Barreto said, most of the
new employment in America comes from small business
owners. Small business is the backbone -- (applause) -- is
the backbone of our economic system. And one of the pieces
of incredibly good news about America is the number of Latino
businesses is increasingly dramatically -- the fastest growing business
sectors in many of our states is the Hispanic-owned businesses.

That's good news for
America. (Applause.) It's good news for
neighborhoods all across our great country. I want to
congratulate the entrepreneurs who are here today. We're
making good progress about making the environment more conducive for
ownership, starting by cutting the taxes on the people who pay the
bills. (Applause.)

We didn't just cut the taxes on a few, we
said, if you pay taxes, you ought to get tax relief. We
understand that our economy was slowing down, that it's not going the
way we'd like it to. And one way to help kick-start the
economy is to give people their own money back. After all,
that money isn't the government's money, it's the people's
money. It's the small business owner's
money. (Applause.)

I spent a lot of time reminding people in
the United States Congress and in Washington that small businesses are
oftentimes unincorporated. The small business owner is more
than likely to be the sole proprietor or have a subchapter Senate
corporation, which means they pay the highest marginal
rate. And so when we cut all rates, including the top rate,
what we're really doing is we're making the business environment more
conducive for the small business owner.

We were saying, the harder you work, the
more money you have to reinvest in your business. Tax relief
was an incredibly important part of making sure the environment is
conducive for the entrepreneurial spirit to flourish in all
neighborhoods all across America.

We did the right thing. And by
the way, we also did the right thing by getting rid of the estate tax,
the death tax, so that a small business owner -- (applause) -- so that
somebody that works their life to build up their business can leave it
to a son or a daughter. That's part of the American
Dream. It's what America ought to be about.

Today I had the privilege of going to
Griegos Elementary School to talk about education. Today is
the first day of school for many elementary school students here in New
Mexico. Education is an important part of making sure that
the entrepreneurial spirit reaches everybody in America. If you're
educated, you're more likely to be able to realize your dreams. It's
so important we get it right.

I want to thank the Hispano Chamber for
the $100,000 a year scholarship money they provide for hard-working
high school students so they can help realize the college
dream. (Applause.)

And we're making progress in Washington on
education matters. First, I want you to understand I always
remember where I came from. Local control of schools is the
best way to make sure every child receives a good
education. (Applause.) It's important that we
trust the local folks.

I visited with the Superintendent of the
Albuquerque schools today. We talked about high
standards. We talked about challenging what I call the soft
bigotry of low expectations. We believe every child can
learn. And by the way, we also not only talked about reading and
writing and adding and subtracting, basic education, we also talked
about making sure that character education is an integral part of the
public school system. (Applause.) We want our children to
be able to read. We also want them to know the difference
between right and wrong, and to understand the values that have made
America a great place. (Applause.)

You hear a lot of talk about the education
bill. I want to share with you my passion. My
passion is to make sure no child gets left behind. My
passion is to make sure that we clearly understand what's taking place
in the schools all across America, and therefore, I've insisted that we
have strong accountability measures. It's says, we must
measure to know whether or not children are learning.

Now, you'll hear all kinds of debate on
it. You hear some say, well, that's too much
government. I don't think it's too much government to ask
the fundamental question, is, can our children read. That's
legitimate government to ask that question. We must ask that
question early and often, because when we find children who can't read,
we've got to correct the problem early, before it's too late.

And then you'll hear some say, well, we
shouldn't measure. It's racist to measure. I
believe it's racist not to measure. It's so easy to quit on a child
whose parents don't speak English as a first language. It's so easy to
walk into a classroom of the so-called hard to educate, and to give up
and just move them through schools. That's
wrong. What America must do is insist upon accountability
measures. We must ask the question, do our children know how
to read. And if they do, we'll praise and thank the
teachers. But if not, we will blow the whistle on failure,
insist a curriculum change, give parents more options and choices to
make sure that not one single child is left behind in
America. (Applause.)

I want to talk about another subject
that's incredibly important for not only the border states, but all of
America. And that's relations with our neighbors to the
south, Mexico. Mexico is a friend of
America. Mexico is our neighbor. And we want our
neighbors to succeed. We want our neighbors to do
well. We want our neighbors to be successful. We
understand that a poor neighbor is somebody that's going to be harder
to deal with than a neighbor that's prospering. And that's
why it's so important for us to tear down barriers and walls that might
separate Mexico from the United States. And that's why it's
so important for us to stand strong when it comes to free trade with
our neighbors to the south.

NAFTA has been good for New Mexico, and
it's been good for Mexico. And that's an important relationship that I
pledge to continue on. I ask -- I ask for the Congress -- I
ask for the Congress to give me trade promotion authority, so that we
can not only have free trade with our neighbor to the south, so that we
can have free trade throughout the hemisphere.

Oh, I know there's some voices who want to
wall us off from Mexico. They want to build a wall. I say
to them, they want to condemn our neighbors to the south in poverty,
and I refuse to accept that type of isolationist and protectionist
attitude. (Applause.)

And let me say one other thing, one other
issue that's important. It speaks to the spirit of our
nation. It speaks to whether or not we're going to be true
friends with the neighbors to the south. And that's the
issue of trucking. There are some people who say we
shouldn't allow our friends to the south to send their trucks into the
United States. I say that's discrimination against Mexico.

I say that if we're going to
have NAFTA, we ought to enforce all of NAFTA. I
believe strongly we can have safety on our highways without
discriminating against our neighbors to the south. To the
protectionists and isolationists, I say if Mexican trucks, if United
States trucks, and Canadian trucks are allowed to move freely on our
highways, we can not only enforce the laws, it will help prosperity
spread its roots throughout our neighborhood. And that's
important for the future. (Applause.)

I love the spirit of this facility, the
idea of citizens saying, what can I do to improve a neighborhood, what
can I do to improve a community in which I live. It's really
the American spirit, isn't it? It's the thing that makes our
nation so different and unique, I think, is that the fact there are
people who are saying, asking the question, what can I do to help a
neighbor in need. And it's really one of my jobs, is to
rally the compassion of America.

I met recently with members of the faith
community here in Albuquerque. We talked about the power of
faith and good works at the grass-roots level throughout our
society. I welcome community-based programs. And
you should welcome faith-based programs, that all exist -- (applause)
-- that all exist because somebody has heard a calling much greater
than government, much greater than -- much greater than laws that can
be passed out of the Congress. No, the great spirit of
America lies in the hearts and souls of our wonderful citizenry,
symbolized by this building -- the willingness of people to help a
neighbor in need. The willingness of good folks who have
done pretty well in life to come together and say, how can I help a
neighbor find a job; what can I do to help a neighbor develop a skill.

No, this is the spirit of America captured
right here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I want to applaud you
all for giving me a chance to come by. I want to thank you for giving
me a chance to serve the greatest nation on the face of the Earth, full
of the most decent people. (Applause.)

Thank you for coming. May God
bless. May God bless New Mexico and the United
States. (Applause.)